James Holmes Allowed to Plead Insanity in Denver Theater Killings

By |June 5, 2013

James Holmes will not dispute that he killed 12 people and wounded 58 more with gunfire at an Aurora, Co., movie theater last summer, reports the Denver Post. A judge allowed Holmes to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered that he undergo an intensive psychiatric evaluation. The plea change allows Holmes’ lawyers to argue at trial that their client was so mentally ill at the time of the July 20 shootings that he could not tell right from wrong. The plea change came on the same day that newly released court filings provide an image of a legally cognizant Holmes in the hours after the shooting. Holmes then told detectives he wanted to “invoke the Sixth Amendment.” “I want a court-appointed attorney,” he said a little later. Various motions filed yesterday and the plea change provide, for the first time, a clear road map for the case in the months ahead.

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